Alumni Profiles

A career in education was the last thing art major Keely Jackson Boomhower had in mind while she was at Wittenberg. To fulfill her service requirement, she volunteered at Nightingale Montessori in Springfield, not because she was interested in teaching, but because she was intrigued by the Montessori method (she herself had once attended a Montessori school).

Alumni Board member Sheila J. Simon ’83 has been named the Democratic Party’s 2010 nominee for Lieutenant Governor of Illinois. A clinical associate professor of law at Southern Illinois University (SIU) School of Law, Simon, daughter of the late U.S. Sen. Paul Simon, will join Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn on the Democratic ticket.

Ten years ago Jeremy Hunter ’94 piloted an innovative class called “The Management of Experience” at the Peter F. Drucker School of Management in California. There was no course like it at the school (or at any business school), and Hunter was sure only a handful of students would sign up. Instead, the class filled to capacity and became one of the highest-rated classes, which spurred him to create two “sequel” classes.

Reflecting the university’s passion for service at every stop, the third annual Witt Nation alumni tour united generations and class years as it brought Wittenberg to the hometowns of many of its 26,000 living alumni. With the goal of conducting…

When Head of School Richard Beall ’74 looks at the faces of the students at the Maharishi School of the Age of Enlightenment (MSAE), a pre-K-12 school in Fairfield, Iowa, he sees children who are “wide awake and ready to learn.”

As a senior majoring in communications, Hannah Powell had some good ideas about what path she might take after college. Her experience helping homeless children with their homework at Springfield’s Interfaith Hospitality Network (IHN) as part of her community service requirement at Wittenberg, however, changed her direction.

For Adrienne Conliffe James, Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” reflects her path in many ways. Following graduation with a bachelor’s degree in secondary education and Spanish, James wanted to try a different course in life and began working in retail, training to become a buyer.

When Purcell Marian High School in Cincinnati, Ohio, had to say goodbye to Cliff Pope after four stellar years, it knew it would be hard to replace the star athlete and standout student. Several years later, with a Wittenberg degree in hand, Pope returned to his high school alma mater, not to leave his mark on the gridiron or the wrestling mat, but rather in the classroom and in the community.

You know them when you see them: the people who have found their true calling. You see it in the way they do their work – with an enthusiasm and dedication that seems to know no limits. Shubhik DebBurman ’91, associate professor of biology at Lake Forest College in Illinois, is one of those lucky people.

As a Wittenberg student, Paul Goodrich’90 developed his skills in two seemingly unrelated fields – first, as a top soccer player for the Tigers (he was twice named All-American and was recently inducted into Wittenberg’s Athletic Hall of Honor) and second, as a geography major interested in exploring and understanding the world. As a graduate, he has devoted himself to combining those twin passions to help create a better future for African boys and girls through his organization, African Sports Outreach (ASO).